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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Grounding annotations in published literature with an emphasis on the functional roles used in metabolic models

Accurate genome annotations in databases are a critical resource available to the scientific community for analysis and research. Inaccurate and inconsistent annotations exist as a result of errors generated from mass automated annotation, and currently act as a barrier to the application of bioinformatics. The purpose of this effort was to improve the SEED by improving the connection of functional roles to literature references. Direct literature references (DLits), found through searches of PubMed and other online databases such as SwissProt, were attached to protein sequences within the PubSEED to provide literature support for the roughly 2,500 distinct functional roles used to construct metabolic models within the Model SEED. Only DLits in which a researcher asserted the function of a protein were attached to sequences. Starting from a list of 1,072 functional roles that did not previously have DLit support, we were able to connect sequences to literature for 655 functional roles, at least 484 of which were in the original list of unsupported roles. When added to the existing set of sequences having DLits, the resulting set of DLit-sequence pairs (the foundation set) now connects approximately 4,300 DLits to approximately 5,600 distinct protein sequences obtained from approximately 16,000 genes (some of these genes have identical protein sequences). From the foundation set, we construct projection sets such that each set contains one member of the foundation set and projections of its functional role onto similar genes. The projection sets revealed 120 inconsistent annotations within the SEED. Two types of inconsistencies were corrected through manual annotation in the PubSEED: instances in which two identical protein sequences had been annotated with different functions, and instances when projected functions contradicted previous annotations. 26,785 changes to gene function assignment, 219 of which were to previously uncharacterized proteins, resulted in a more consistent and accurate set of input data from which to construct revised metabolic models within the Model SEED.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Four conceptual issues to consider in integrating social and environmental factors in risk and impact assessments

In the last twenty years, both the increase in academic production and the expansion of professional involvement in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Social Impact Assessment (SIA) have evidenced growing scientific and business interest in risk and impact analysis. However, this growth has not brought with it parallel progress in addressing the main shortcomings of EIA/SIA, i.e. insufficient integration of environmental and social factors into development project analyses and, in cases where the social aspects are considered, technical-methodological failings in their analysis and assessment. It is clear that these weaknesses carry with them substantial threats to the sustainability (social, environmental and economic) of projects which impact on the environment, and consequently to the local contexts where they are carried out and to the delicate balance of the global ecosystem. This paper argues that, in a sociological context of complexity and dynamism, four conceptual elements should underpin approaches to socio-environmental risk and impact assessment in development projects: a theoretical base in actor–network theory; an ethical grounding in values which are internationally recognized (though not always fulfilled in practice); a (new) epistemological-scientific base; and a methodological foundation in social participation. - Highlights: • A theoretical foundation in actor–network theory • An ethical grounding in values which are internationally recognized, but rarely carried through into practice • A (new) epistemological-scientific base • A methodological foundation in social participation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

A review on recent advancements of substructures for offshore wind turbines

The sustainable development of offshore wind energy requires thorough investigations on technological issues. The substructure, which acts as the natural link between technologies and environments, is a critical topic for the offshore wind industry. This paper presents a comprehensive review of variable types of offshore wind substructures associate with their corresponding example projects. The study is complemented with a special attention to a novel foundation, namely suction bucket foundation. Main technological issues related to this concept are integrated. In the paper, bearing behaviors of offshore wind turbines (OWTs) with the suction bucket foundation under lateral loads, vertical loads, combined loads, and extreme loading conditions are discussed. Two installation methods are introduced. The geometric and improved design is illustrated by considering capabilities in transportation and installation. Research methods, including field tests, laboratory tests, centrifuge tests, theoretical analysis and numerical simulations, are listed; these methods are employed in previous studies to investigate behaviors of the OWT. This review integrates most relevant aspects and recent advancements together, which aims to provide a reference frame for future studies and projects.

17 WIND ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Multimodal characterization of solution-processed Cu3SbS4 absorbers for thin film solar cells

The most efficient inorganic thin film chalcogenide-based solar cells use CdTe or CuInGaSe2 (CIGS) as absorber layers, which rely on toxic (Cd) and/or scarce elements (In, Te). The desire for more sustainable solar cells has led to the development of Earth abundant and non-hazardous chalcogenide absorbers. Cu3SbS4 (famatinite) is a promising Earth abundant p-type semiconductor that has a low direct band gap (0.9–1.05 eV), is a superabsorber (absorption coefficient 104–105 cm1), and has potential in low-cost, thin-film solar cells. Although these properties make the Cu3SbS4 phase stand out as a promising material for photovoltaics, to date Cu3SbS4 solar cells have only achieved low efficiencies. In this study, we demonstrate a method for synthesizing Cu3SbS4 nanocrystals and formation of thin-films by coating nanocrystal precursors onto substrates. Optical, structural, and chemical state characterization were performed before and after thermal processing of the Cu3SbS4 films. A detailed experimental analysis of the bulk and surfaces of the Cu3SbS4 absorber films indicate that phase stability and preferential copper oxidation at the surface may limit device performance for Cu3SbS4 based solar cells. These findings may provide significant insight on how to improve Cu3SbS4 based solar cell performance by controlling processing conditions. This research was funded by the United States National Science Foundation – Scalable Nanomanufacturing program (Grant CBET-1449383). A portion of this research was performed at the Northwest Nanotechnology Infrastructure, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation (Grant ECCS- 1542101). The acquisition of the OSU Titan TEM was supported by the National Science Foundation via the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program under Grant No. 1040588, the Murdock Charitable Trust, and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute (ONAMI). XANES spectra were obtained through an approved program user proposal at the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The ALS approved program user proposal beam time was obtained through the chemical imaging initiative, an LDRD program at PNNL. We acknowledge Trey Diulus and Dr Igor Lyubinetsky for their assistance with the XPS experiments.

Albuquerque, Gustavo H.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Determinants for proton location and electron coupled proton transfer in hydrogen bonded pentafluorophenol-anion clusters

This work aims to reveal the determinant factors for proton locations and electron coupled proton transfer (ECPT) in biologically relevant hydrogen bonded systems. Pentafluorophenol-anion clusters [C6F5O-•H+•A-]- are chosen to model active sites of biological functions, with the anion A- being systematically varied to ensure the proton affinities (PAs) of the anions well cover the referenced PA of C6F5O- from being appreciably smaller, similar, and to significantly larger. Negative ion photoelectron spectroscopy of these clusters provides spectroscopic evidence showing that proton location in the anionic state is largely following the PA prediction, while ECPT is observed only for the clusters with the anion possessing the electron binding energy (EBE) significantly larger than that of the referenced C6F5O-. Theoretical calculations suggest these clusters are stabilized by forming single strong hydrogen bond between donor and acceptor, and the associated charge and MO analyses fully support the experimental observations. The current holistic cluster model study indicates that PA is the right determinant that can be used to predict the proton location and describe hydrogen bonding structures, while both PA and EBE of anionic groups play important roles in facilitating ECPT process. This work was supported by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Science, Geosciences, and Biosciences (X.-B.W.), and performed using EMSL, a national scientific user facility sponsored by DOE’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which is operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the DOE. Part of this work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No-11604046 for JZ; No. 11727810 for ZRS), as well as “Chenguang Program” by Shanghai Education Development Foundation, Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No. 16CG38) and Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 16ZR1448100) (JZ).

Zhang, Jian↗
DOE OSTI2016

Orbital spaces in the divide-expand-consolidate coupled cluster method

The theoretical foundation for solving coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) amplitude equations to a desired precision in terms of independent fragment calculations using restricted local orbital spaces is reinvestigated with focus on the individual error sources. Four different error sources are identified theoretically and numerically and it is demonstrated that, for practical purposes, local orbital spaces for CCSD calculations can be identified from calculations at the MP2 level. The development establishes a solid theoretical foundation for local CCSD calculations for the independent fragments, and thus for divide–expand–consolidate coupled cluster calculations for large molecular systems with rigorous error control. Based on this theoretical foundation, we have developed an algorithm for determining the orbital spaces needed for obtaining the single fragment energies to a requested precision and numerically demonstrated the robustness and precision of this algorithm

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Structural Insight into Allosteric Inhibition of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Tryptophan Synthase

The rise of antibiotic‐resistant pathogens requires redirecting drug discovery effort toward new cellular targets to provide new treatment options. Such alternative, yet unexplored opportunities exist in central metabolism, where many enzymes are only conditionally essential and thus their successful exploitation requires understanding of metabolic fluxes and pathway regulations under certain environmental conditions. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis , tryptophan biosynthesis represents one such promising pathway that could be targeted. In Mtb, the multistep L‐Trp synthesis involves several enzymes: TrpEG, TrpD, TrpC and TrpAB, which is validated as conditionally essential in vivo . The whole‐cell screening of a diversity‐oriented synthetic library identified a novel bactericidal azetidine derivative, BRD4592, that specifically inhibits TrpAB (tryptophan synthase). TrpAB is a heterotetrameric, PLP‐dependent complex catalyzing two last reactions in L‐Trp synthesis: the conversion of indole‐3‐glycerol phosphate to indole and glyceraldehyde 3‐phosphate (TrpA) followed by indole and L‐Ser condensation to yield L‐Trp (TrpB). During the catalytic cycle, indole is transferred from the TrpA to TrpB active site through 25 Å hydrophobic channel to react with the L‐Ser‐PLP adduct. The enzymatic activities and substrate channeling are coordinated by complex allosteric communication between the subunits. This regulation involves cycling between various conformational states, with both subunits adopting either an open (inactive) or closed (active) state. Detailed kinetic, biophysical and structural evidence reveals that BRD4592 is an allosteric, mixed‐type inhibitor, which binds specifically to a novel site within the intersubunit channel, at the TrpA‐TrpB interface. The molecule promotes closed, active state of the TrpB subunit and increases enzyme affinity for the L‐Ser substrate. BRD4592 acts on three levels: it limits flexibility of the interface potentially disrupting mutual activation of the subunits, prevents indole translocation, and increases product inhibition providing means to successfully inhibit both, TrpA and TrpB reactions. Our results indicate that allosteric binders may represent an effective tool to deactivate central metabolism enzymes, which often are allosterically regulated and might be predisposed for this type of inhibition. Support or Funding Information This work was supported by the Broad Institute Tuberculosis donor group, the Pershing Square Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under grant OPP1032518, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under contracts HHSN272200700058C and HHSN272201200026C and the U. S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, under contract DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. For this work, University of Chicago is a subgrantee of Structural Genomics Consortium under a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant for the Structure‐Guided Drug Discovery Coalition.

Michalska, Karolina↗
DOE OSTI2016

SU-F-P-33: Combining Research and Professional Practice in the Clinical Setting: A Medical Physicist Personal Experience

Purpose: To initiate a discussion on the current and evolving role of Medical Physicists based on author’s professional and research experience in patient safety and quality control. Methods: Several professionals of the departments of Medical Physics and Radiation Oncology, chiefly devoted to clinical tasks, began a research program on patient safety and quality control in a framework provided by the implementation of intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT). We performed studies on virtual simulation for IORT, in vivo dosimetry, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), statistical process control (SPC), and receiver operating characteristics of dosimetric equipment. This was done with the support of our research foundation and different grants while continuing with our departmental clinical routine involving about 1600 annual treatments with two linacs and different brachytherapy techniques. Results: We published 5 papers in international journals in the last two years. This author conducted a doctoral research which resulted in a dissertation in 2015. The extra time spent after treatments was essential to succeed. Funding and support achieved via our foundation played a crucial role; but this would have not been possible without punctual external mentoring and partnership. FMEA conclusions were able to be implemented only with staff commitment; however, conclusions concerning equipment cannot be easily communicated to manufacturers. These tasks required extra training in the appropriated methods. Conclusion: Research needed the support of a dedicated foundation, which would have been very difficult to obtain with the sole participation of our departments. FMEA and SPC results may need engagement of staff and manufacturers, respectively, hard to achieve without strong recommendations or even a regulatory framework. All these fields need evolution of Medical Physicists’ roles and additional training. Devotion to both clinical tasks and research could be unfeasible for Medical Physicists in the clinical setting without the appropriate rearrangement of their schedules and tasks. Supported by grants IPT-300000-2010-3 and PI11/01659. ERDF funds and Spanish Government.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2021

PyGDH: Python Grid Discretization Helper

Mathematical models expressed in the form of discretized equations play an important role inmany scientific disciplines. In our experience, few domain scientists have sufficient backgroundin numerical computing (or the time required to acquire such a background) to use manyflexible and powerful but complex open source packages, such as FEniCS (Alnæs et al., 2015)and OpenFOAM (The OpenFOAM Foundation Ltd, n.d.). Many user-friendly open sourcepackages, such as FiPy (J. E. Guyer & Warren, 2009), and many commercial packages, suchas COMSOL Multiphysics (COMSOL AB, n.d.) and Simcenter STAR-CCM+ (Siemens DigitalIndustries Software, n.d.), provide limited flexibility in the equations that users can express.Additionally, the use of commercial packages, which by nature do not perform calculationstransparently, can hinder reproducibility, which is vital to the scientific process. PyGDH(“pigged”) is a Python 2 / Python 3 (Python Software Foundation, 1991–2020) package thatis meant to be accessible to scientists who might not be specialists in scientific computing,while approaching the level of flexibility associated with writing dedicated programs tailoredto solving specific problems. The PyGDH User’s Guide provides detailed instructions forcreating numerical models, including a brief introduction to necessary command line andPython (Python Software Foundation, 1991–2020) skills, and discussions of discretization andvalidation. Note that PyGDH emphasizes flexibility and simplicity over performance, and wasnot designed for high-performance applications or models describing complex spatial domains.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2011

Building a 40% Energy Saving House in the Mixed-Humid Climate

This report describes a home that uses 40% less energy than the energy-efficient Building America standard - a giant step in the pursuit of affordable near-zero-energy housing through the evolution of five near-zero-energy research houses. This four-bedroom, two-bath, 1232-ft2 house has a Home Energy Rating System (HERS) index of 35 (a HERS rating of 0 is a zero-energy house, a conventional new house would have a HERS rating of 100), which qualifies it for federal energy efficiency and solar incentives. The house is leading to the planned construction of a similar home in Greensburg, Kansas, and 21 staff houses in the Walden Reserve, a 7000-unit "deep green" community in Cookville, Tennessee. Discussions are underway for construction of similar houses in Charleston, South Carolina, Seattle, Washington, Knoxville and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and upstate New York. This house should lead to a 40% and 50% Gate-3, Mixed-Humid-Climate Joule for the DOE Building America Program. The house is constructed with structurally-insulated-panel walls and roof, raised metal-seam roof with infrared reflective coating, airtight envelope (1.65 air changes per hour at 50 Pascal), supply mechanical ventilation, ducts inside the conditioned space, extensive moisture control package, foundation geothermal space heating and cooling system, ZEHcor wall, solar water heater, and a 2.2 kWp grid-connected photovoltaic (PV) system. The detailed specifications for the envelope and the equipment used in ZEH5 compared to all the houses in this series are shown in Tables 1 and 2. Based on a validated computer simulation of ZEH5 with typical occupancy patterns and energy services for four occupants, energy for this all-electric house is predicted to cost only $0.66/day ($0.86/day counting the hookup charges). By contrast, the benchmark house would require $3.56/day, including hookup charges (these costs are based on a 2006 residential rates of $0.07/kWh and solar buyback at $0.15/kWh). The solar fraction for this home located in Lenoir City, Tennessee, is predicted to be as high as 41%(accounting for both solar PV and the solar water heater). This all-electric home is predicted to use 25 kWh/day based on the one year of measured data used to calibrate a whole-building simulation model. Based on two years of measured data, the roof-mounted 2.2 kWp PV system is predicted to generate 7.5 kWh/day. The 2005 cost to commercially construct ZEH5, including builder profit and overhead, is estimated at about $150,000. This cost - for ZEH5's panelized construction, premanufactured utility wall (ZEHcor), foundation geothermal system, and the addition of the walkout lower level, and considering the falling cost for PV - suggests that the construction cost per ft2 for a ZEH5 two-story will be even more cost-competitive. The 2005 construction cost estimate for a finished-out ZEH5 with 2632 ft2 is $222,000 or $85/ft2. The intention of this report is to help builders and homeowners make the decision to build zero-energy-ready homes. Detailed drawings, specifications, and lessons learned in the construction and analysis of data from about 100 sensors monitoring thermal performance for a one-year period are presented. This information should be specifically useful to those considering structural insulated panel walls and roof, foundation geothermal space heating and cooling, solar water heater and roof-mounted, photovoltaic, grid-tied systems.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2016

DOE Energy Frontiers Research Center for Heterogeneous Functional Materials; the “HeteroFoaM Center”

Synopsis of five year accomplishments: Devices that convert and store energy are generally made from heterogeneous constituent materials that act and interact to selectively conduct, transport, and separate mass, heat, and charge. Controlling these actions and interactions enables the technical breakthroughs that have made fuel cells, batteries, and solid state membranes, for example, essential parts of our society. In the biological sense, these materials are ‘vascular’ rather than primitive ‘cellular’ materials, in which the arrangements and configurations of the constituents (including their void phases) play essential and definitive roles in their functional capabilities. In 2009 a group of investigators, with lifetime investments of effort in the understanding of heterogeneous materials, recognized that the design of such material systems is not an optimization problem as such. Local interactions of the constituents create “emergent” properties and responses that are not part of the formal set of constituent characteristics, in much the same sense that society and culture is created by the group interactions of the people involved. The design of emergent properties is an open question in all formal science, but for energy materials the lack of this foundation science relegates development tasks to Edisonian trial and error, with anecdotal success and frequent costly failures. That group defined, for the first time, multi-scale heterogeneous functional materials with functional disordered and void phase regions as “HeteroFoaM,” and formed the first multidisciplinary research team to define and codify the foundation science of that material class. The primary goal of the HeteroFoaM Center was, and is, to create and establish the multi-scale fundamental knowledge and related methodology required for the rational and systematic multiphysics design of heterogeneous functional materials and their interfaces and surfaces for applications in energy transformation and storage. The scope of the HeteroFoaM center was focused on the discovery and development of the control science of key phenomena across multiple length scales that create functionality in heterogeneous materials and their structured interfaces, boundaries, and surfaces for applications in energy technologies. The HeteroFoaM Center defined a critical path and established an essential foundation for progress in the field of heterogeneous functional materials. Perhaps the single most important element of progress was the establishment of the capability to design, characterize, and model heterogeneous functional materials at the conformal level, i.e., for a limited set of material systems, the HeteroFoaM team defined how to control the order / disorder at the atomic level, the surfaces, and the interfaces for selected constituent morphologies, and to use multiphysical models to explain the remarkable property variations resulting from that control science for several heterogeneous material systems. For those cases we defined “meso-structures” (at various scales) where the interactive physics of constituent phases acted to create emergent properties, e.g., strongly emergent mixed conductor behavior and ionic transport. The general approach used by this EFRC is shown in Fig. 1. The HeteroFoaM Center created the genre of Heterogeneous Functional Materials with functional surfaces and interfaces (including void phases) called HeteroFoaM as a science platform to enable rational analysis and design of functional material systems by focusing on the meso-interactions that drive emergent response. The team firmly established this approach with over 180 archival publications (see “Publications” section), 7 patent applications, and over 100 invited lectures in 15 countries on this topic, enabled by building a remarkably effective and uniquely coherent research team. Indeed, our team was our principal strength; this problem eluded solution earlier because such a team was not available.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2011

Progress on Plant-Level Components for Nuclear Fuel Recycling: Commonality

Progress made in developing a common mathematical modeling framework for plant-level components of a simulation toolkit for nuclear fuel recycling is summarized. This ongoing work is performed under the DOE Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program, which has an element focusing on safeguards and separations (SafeSeps). One goal of this element is to develop a modeling and simulation toolkit for used nuclear fuel recycling. The primary function of the SafeSeps simulation toolkit is to enable the time-dependent coupling of separation modules and safeguards tools (either native or third-party supplied) that simulate and/or monitor the individual separation processes in a separations plant. The toolkit integration environment will offer an interface for the modules to register in the toolkit domain based on the commonality of diverse unit operations. This report discusses the source of this commonality from a combined mathematical modeling and software design perspectives, and it defines the initial basic concepts needed for development of application modules and their integrated form, that is, an application software. A unifying mathematical theory of chemical thermomechanical network transport for physicochemical systems is proposed and outlined as the basis for developing advanced modules. A program for developing this theory from the underlying first-principles continuum thermomechanics will be needed in future developments; accomplishment of this task will enable the development of a modern modeling approach for plant-level models. Rigorous, advanced modeling approaches at the plant-level can only proceed from the development of reduced (or low-order) models based on a solid continuum field theory foundation. Such development will pave the way for future programmatic activities on software verification, simulation validation, and model uncertainty quantification on a scientific basis; currently, no satisfactory foundation exists for considering these activities. The exploitation of mathematical commonality for unit operations with the intent of developing generic and comprehensive software for nuclear reprocessing has not been considered to this author's knowledge. Past attention has been given to plant-level processes on an individual and isolated basis, which has led to various models and corresponding codes implementing non-systematic approaches based on elementary principles of chemical processing. This practice has built an initial knowledge base, but it was not fruitful in producing a lasting and extensible simulation capability. In contrast, a common, rigorous, mathematical modeling framework for all plant-level operations, as proposed here, has a tremendous practical and theoretical value because it will reduce the software implementation work, creates a well-defined modeling standard to compare past and future models, and, more importantly, opens the doors for scientific considerations of simulation fidelity; the latter has an obvious beneficial impact in supporting experimental validation programs. Therefore, the proposed framework is likely to generate a solid foundation for modeling plant-level processes for physicochemical nuclear (and non-nuclear) applications. Demonstration of concrete module implementation is the subject of future communications including prototypes for several modules, namely, voloxidation, dissolver, digester, accountability tank, and solvent extraction. Unit-operation commonality is a key aspect to be explored for a successful implementation of these modules aimed at realizing various flowsheets and plant configurations.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Scientific Computing Strategic Plan for the Idaho National Laboratory

Scientific computing is a critical foundation of modern science. Without innovations in the field of computational science, the essential missions of the Department of Energy (DOE) would go unrealized. Taking a leadership role in such innovations is Idaho National Laboratory’s (INL’s) challenge and charge, and is central to INL’s ongoing success. Computing is an essential part of INL’s future. DOE science and technology missions rely firmly on computing capabilities in various forms. Modeling and simulation, fueled by innovations in computational science and validated through experiment, are a critical foundation of science and engineering. Big data analytics from an increasing number of widely varied sources is opening new windows of insight and discovery. Computing is a critical tool in education, science, engineering, and experiments. Advanced computing capabilities in the form of people, tools, computers, and facilities, will position INL competitively to deliver results and solutions on important national science and engineering challenges. A computing strategy must include much more than simply computers. The foundational enabling component of computing at many DOE national laboratories is the combination of a showcase like data center facility coupled with a very capable supercomputer. In addition, network connectivity, disk storage systems, and visualization hardware are critical and generally tightly coupled to the computer system and co located in the same facility. The existence of these resources in a single data center facility opens the doors to many opportunities that would not otherwise be possible.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Concept of Operations: National Technology Test Bed Network for Water Resource Recovery

There is an urgency to advancing wastewater technologies due to aging water infrastructure and emerging regulations. A crosscutting working group proposes a conceptual design for a test bed network to understand and evaluate wastewater technologies to drive acceptance and deployment of new technologies to enhance performance. The working group includes contributors from the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. National Science Foundation, and the Water Research Foundation (formerly known as the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation). Upgrading today's aging wastewater treatment infrastructure to a new generation of water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) requires the development and deployment of innovative technologies. The path to technology adoption depends on expensive, time consuming, and often repetitive cycles of testing and validation. Existing water resource recovery technology testing facilities (e.g., test beds) are underutilized and cannot, by themselves, broaden technology uptake. It has been proposed that technology adoption could be accelerated by a network linking these test facilities with innovators, manufacturers, utilities, regulators, policymakers, and educators. This document proposes a structure for a National Test bed Network (TBN) for water resource recovery. The concepts for its operation are explored herein. This document identifies drivers to launch a TBN and critical needs for successful implementation of the network. An important driver to technology implementation at WRRFs is the relationship between local utilities and state regulators. The TBN could provide access to validated performance data and facilitate deployment. To link the stakeholders and accelerate deployment, the TBN will require standards for methods, data quality, data management, and data security. These standards will enable validation of performance and will expand the “toolbox” that utilities and regulators could consider. Design, set up, and launch of this toolbox is beyond the scope of operations of utilities and regulators and will likely require external support to achieve full operation. Herein, a pathway is proposed to achieve this full operation. This document defines the function of a WRRF TBN. It also proposes a structure for the TBN to achieve its stated goals and mission. Finally, this document summarizes findings from several sources, including a series of workshops about the TBN concept, operators of test beds in ancillary industries, and discussions with regulators and permitting agencies. A description of this work was published in the peer-reviewed literature (Mihelcic 2017).

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2018

Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (CPACE) for Tax-Exempt and Public Entities (“CivicPACE”)

This report summarizes the work of the CivicPACE team to open the market for property assessed clean energy financing for the nonprofit, tax exempt sector. Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) finances property improvements that are paid back through a line item on the property owner’s tax bill. Most states restrict such improvements to renewable energy and energy efficiency, although they may include water conservation and disaster related improvements such as hurricane or earthquake preparedness. When such projects are developed for commercial properties, it is referred to as commercial PACE or CPACE. When CPACE applies to tax exempt or nonprofit organizations, we refer to it as CivicPACE. CivicPACE also represents the name of this program. The purpose of the CivicPACE project was to help nonprofit tax-exempt organizations such as affordable housing, faith-based institutions, and schools gain greater access to financing for solar energy deployment through PACE. As such, the lessons learned and best practices from the CivicPACE team work is intended for state and municipal program designers, PACE administrators, solar installers, and nonprofit organizations. CPACE is experiencing rapid growth. Cumulative CPACE financing grew from 8.2 million in 2010 to 111 million in 2014 to 588 million in 2017. Renewable energy, mostly solar, represents about a quarter of the financing; the nonprofit sector represents about 10% of total financing. The Project Team was formed in early 2015 when solar financing options were limited for nonprofits (NPOs). Traditional bank financing was difficult for nonprofit organizations to secure since they are often viewed as a credit risk. Despite the growth of CPACE, few tax-exempt organizations were using the financing mechanism at the start of 2015. Nonetheless, CPACE financing appeared to have tremendous potential for solar development for tax-exempt organizations such as schools, churches, and multifamily affordable housing, because it addresses many of the traditional nonprofit financing roadblocks, such as credit risk. Given the benefits and the rapid growth of CPACE, the opportunity to expand CPACE financing for solar development on tax-exempt buildings was timely. The Project team was comprised of The Solar Foundation (TSF), Urban Ingenuity (UI), and Clean Energy Solutions, Inc. (CESI). The Solar Foundation was the Principal Investigator and overall team lead. The Solar Foundation is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose mission is to accelerate adoption of the world’s most abundant energy source. PACE financing specialist Urban Ingenuity was the lead for the team for the pilot projects. Clean Energy Solutions (CESI) was the lead on the market analysis, financial modeling, and HUD regulatory issues for PACE financed solar development on affordable housing. The CivicPACE team focused on four key activities to help open the market for CPACE financing of solar development for nonprofit entities: research, pilot projects, technical assistance, and information dissemination.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

Prime Impact Fund (Final Technical Report)

PRIME Coalition Inc. constructed a first-of-its-kind impact investment fund comprised exclusively of charitable capital from grant and program-related investment-makers (private foundations, community foundations, corporate foundations, donor-advised funds, an d other corporate, family office, and individual donors). Prime Impact Fund was purpose-built to address the "innovation valley of death" in the energy sector, stepping into the capital gap with a new investment model.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2023

Creating a Simulation Platform for Research and Development of Advanced Control Methods

Advanced nuclear reactors are essential to meet the changing energy requirements throughout both the United States and the rest of world. In addition to other features, they are designed to enable deployment in remote locations and operate in a fully (or near-fully) autonomous manner, which will require a new control paradigm. To realize autonomously operating reactors, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies Advanced Sensors and Instrumentation (NEET ASI) program conducts research and development into the enabling technologies and methods needed, including digital twins, machine learning, and risk modeling, in addition to various types of control methods. These technologies and methods are the key foundations needed to achieve fully autonomous systems. To develop and evaluate the technologies and methods necessary for achieving autonomous operations, it is critical to identify a software tool capable of integrating all the required elements. In surveying the available solutions, no software platforms were identified that could accomplish what was needed without introducing drawbacks. This challenge was the motivation for the current effort: to develop a software platform that can seamlessly integrate autonomouscontrol-enabling technologies and methods, allowing for accelerated research and development and transfer of ideas. The resulting platform, known as the Control and Optimization Modular Modeling Application for Nuclear Deployment (COMMAND), is Python-based, and leverages open-source tools to provide flexibility and facilitate building upon prior research. It is designed to enable advanced reactor developers to deploy and test advanced control technologies and methods coupled with their own models, solutions, and hardware. Given the substantial undertaking of developing such a platform, the current effort focused on laying down scalable, flexible software foundations and infrastructure, then demonstrating the platform via a use case. These foundations included developing generic modules, which contain the base variable and system blocks (the information and functional building blocks, respectively, that can be used to design a simulation) and the data handling and storage blocks needed to exchange information between the various blocks; as well as enablingtechnology-specific modules. This platform was evaluated via a use case, which was to simulate and control a process for the Microreactor Automated Control System (MACS) test bed. While MACS is not currently directly coupled to any specific microreactor physics, it was initially developed in concert with the Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) microreactor, and so the MARVEL physics are used here. As part of this use case, several enabling-technology-specific blocks within COMMAND were integrated, including a proportional integral derivative (PID) control block, a Reactor Excursion and Leak Analysis Program (RELAP5-3D) block, and an anomaly detection block. The COMMAND software platform was successfully demonstrated to achieve the scalability and flexibility objectives of this effort and will be leveraged by the program’s research efforts to advance state of the art control methodologies towards autonomous operations of advanced reactors. As new use cases are created and implemented, it is anticipated that COMMAND will continue to grow and evolve to meet new requirements.

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND ↗
DOE OSTI2023

Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics for the 2020s

We live in an extraordinary period of discovery in astronomy and astrophysics. Six Nobel Prizes have been awarded over the past decade alone for discoveries based on astronomical data (dark energy, gravitational waves, neutrino oscillations, the discovery of exoplanets, cosmology, and supermassive black holes). Many of the ambitious scientific visions of the 2010 New Worlds, New Horizons (Astro2010)1 decadal survey are being fulfilled, but momentum has only grown. We stand on the threshold of new endeavors that will transform not only our understanding of the universe and the processes and physical paradigms that govern it but also humanity’s place in it. This report of the Committee for a Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 (Astro2020) proposes a broad, integrated plan for space- and ground-based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade 2023–2032.2 It also lays the foundations for further advances in the following decade. This is the seventh in a sequence of decadal survey studies in this field from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. This survey examines the program of record, providing advice on the major projects from prior surveys that are yet to be completed. It also lays out priorities for future investments driven by scientific opportunities. The recommendations in this report advance foundational activities that support the people who drive innovation and discovery, and that promote the technologies and tools needed to carry out the science. The report also recommends sustaining activities on a broad range of cost and time scales, as well as activities that enable future visionary projects by maturing them scientifically and technically. Last, the recommendations set in motion the construction of frontier facilities that will change the view and understanding of the cosmos. The survey is bounded by plausible budget scenarios based on briefings from the sponsoring agencies— the Department of Energy (DOE), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Within these bounds, the survey aims high, reflecting this time of great scientific promise and progress, with opportunities to pursue some of the most compelling scientific quests of our times.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗